Does anyone know if Todd Haynes is willing to add scenes where an actor’s legs get longer? Pedro Pascal is reportedly circling Haynes’s next film, De Noche, per Deadline, replacing Joaquin Phoenix. Pascal would star as a corrupt cop who flees 1930s Los Angeles for Mexico with his lover, played by Danny Ramirez. The project — reportedly slated to include lots of graphic sex scenes — stalled in July when Phoenix deserted just five days before filming was to begin despite actively pursuing the role and collaborating with Haynes. “Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually,” Haynes told Variety in September 2023. Filming for De Noche will reportedly restart in the New Year in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Funnily enough, Pascal and Phoenix play rivals in Ari Aster’s latest, Eddington, with Phoenix as the corrupt cop in that film.)
At the time Phoenix dropped out, the role was impossible to recast, sources told Variety, likely because international distributors had purchased the rights to the film expecting it would star Phoenix and the contracts did not allow for a recasting. “It has been a nightmare,” producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films said at the time on Facebook. Vachon also produced Celine Song’s Materialists, in which Pascal co-starred earlier this year. This could be what gets Pascal his first Oscar nomination (while Phoenix watches from the sidelines), but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Just get Pascal to Guadalajara first.
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